Page 7 - Centre Block Restoration And Modernization Project

“It’s a large project, with hundreds, if not thousands,

of really important decisions,” said Wright, adding

that those decisions can impact the budget and
schedule.

“Until we move through all of the foundational

decisions it would be quite foolhardy to commit to

a budget or schedule because those could swing
in such a way that any estimate would not really be

based on a solid foundation.”

AN EXHAUSTIVE ASSESSMENT

A lot of work has taken place so far, with the

project really having begun in the past year. All

the major milestones have been met, said Wright.
The past year and a half has involved an extensive

assessment program to determine the building’s
Archaeological Artifact Centre Block -Kate Westbury
actual condition and the extent of structural
deficiencies.
“[An integrated office] creates total

ownership. It takes excuses out of
“This is the most detailed assessment program
the equation.”
that we’ve done to date in the precinct. One of
— Rob Wright, assistant deputy minister at
the lessons learned from previous work has been
Public Services and Procurement
to take the time up front to do a really thorough Canada (PSPC)

assessment of the building to better understand

its condition,” Wright explained. “That’s all about in temporary systems for the lifespan of the project.
de-risking the project. Jennifer [Garrett, director That’s been completed.”

general of the Centre Block Rehabilitation Program
at PSPC] and her team did an exhaustive building Garrett added that a substantive pickup with

condition assessment and put in a tremendous the program really started with relocating

amount of effort to essentially take the Centre Block parliamentarians to their interim offices.
offline: removing all of the IT systems, electrical, the “That was a significant effort on its own,” she said.

heating and cooling, mechanical —and then putting “What it did was allow us to immediately ramp up

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